Away From Me
by Icy Rundas
Summary: Tomi is from the Earth Kingdom, but she's got a secret. She's one of the few double-benders in the world. When she decides to take bold actions to help the war effort, she gets caught by a certain prince. Ack! What's Tomi gonna do now? ZXOC
1. Chapter 1

I was a small child when my mother was taken from our small Earth Kingdom village to fight for the Fire Nation in the war. My father was injured when he tried to stop the soldiers from taking her away. I can barely remember her face it's been so long. I can barely remember my tiny hand being pried from hers as the soldiers dragged her away to fight against us. I can barely remember my father lying on the grass, burned and bleeding, with me crying and screaming for my mother to come back. The other villagers came and helped my father get better, but he would never be able to walk again without a crutch. He was barely able to teach me all his knowledge of the art of earthbending. I spent all of my childhood learning how to earthbend; I was going to fight in the war and find my mother. What I couldn't do was practice my mother's art. My mother was a firebender. She taught me a few moves before she was taken, but I didn't learn much since I was so young. Yes, I am both a firebender and an earthbender. My eyes are two different colors; the left is a dark yellow-gold color and the right is blue. My father always told me that was because I was able to bend two different elements. Only the Avatar was supposed to be able to bend more than one element, but I was different for some reason. He told me that he thought that since he and my mother had been two of the few people that still truly believed that the Avatar would come and save the world, that I was blessed by the spirits. I was blessed with the gift of double-bending, and as long as I used the gift to help the war end, I would be able to keep using it. My name is Tomi, and I am the only double-bender in the world, save the Avatar.


	2. Today Was the Day

Today was the day. I had heard from my sneaking around the nearby Fire Nation outpost that the lovely banished prince Zuko and his ship were to be traveling down South on his trip to find the Avatar. They would be stopping at a nearby port town for a bit to refuel the ship and the soldiers themselves. This was my chance to join the war. I had decided to travel to the port town ahead of time and sneak onboard the ship and dress like a Fire Nation soldier. When, if Zuko ever found the Avatar, I would set him, or her free, and help them save the world. This was my master plan. And it sucked, because I had no clue as to what I'd do while the prince was searching for the Avatar. Anyway, I was growing restless in my village with nothing to do but practice earthbending moves I'd known since I was six years old. I decided that my retarded plan was better than sitting around waiting for another random Fire Nation raid. I packed some food and my mother's knife and said goodbye to my village. Actually, that's what I'd liked to have done. What I actually did was pack some food and my mother's knife, write a note to my father, kiss him lightly on the cheek while he was sleeping, and make my run to the next town in the dead of night. I…didn't want him to see me leave. I don't think I would have had the strength to leave if I had waited to tell him goodbye properly.

I waited for the ship to arrive on top of the roof of a small inn that had a perfect view of the harbor. That way, I would know when the ship docked. When it finally did, I watched almost all of the soldiers get off and go into the town for their small break. I saw the prince's uncle get off as well, but I didn't see the prince himself. Some of the soldiers had the brilliant idea to go into some bar for a few drinks. To my glee, one of them got too drunk, and stumbled into an alley, where I tailed him and hit him upside the head with the hilt of my mother's knife. He was out like a light. I took his uniform and tied him to a pole with his belt. I checked to make sure no one was nearby and put the uniform on when I was sure no one was around. I strolled casually to the ship and went aboard. The rest of the soldiers came back soon afterward; I fit right in. We left when morning hit. The voyage down south was pretty uneventful, except once when I was chosen to help the prince practice his firebending. Damn. He was good. I was lucky to escape the encounter without any burns. I had a couple bruises from where he had hit and kicked me, but I was okay with that. Any trip to the infirmary would have me exposed in a second.

We were sailing closer and closer to the Southern Water tribe, and I wondered if we would stop there to look for the Avatar. Prince Zuko was practicing firebending on the deck when a bright beam of light went up into the sky in the distance. I felt myself grow weak for as long as the light was visible. Zuko stopped in his tracks and I saw his eyes go wide.

"Uncle!" He turned around abruptly and ran into me head on. I couldn't get enough strength to move out of the way in time. My helmet fell off in the collision and I thought I stopped breathing for a minute.

"Get out of the w- hey, wait a minute…you-" I didn't waste another second. I got up from where I had landed on the floor and tried to run.

"Stop!" I ignored him and kept going.

"I said stop!" He tackled me to the floor with a growl. I started to squirm. He pinned my arms behind my back and pulled me to my feet.

"You're an Earth Kingdom girl, why are you here? And why did you impersonate one of my men?" he roared in my face. I flinched.

"Zuko, what hap- oh. Who is this young lady?" I tried to wrench myself out of the prince's grip as the man came closer.

"I saw that light, Prince Zuko. Do you know what that means?"

"Uncle, this girl is from the Earth Kingdom! She impersonated one of my men!"

"Hmm…she is a feisty one…"

"What are you doing on my ship?" I bit my bottom lip for a second or two, and then I turned my head to face him.

"I was waiting for you to find the Avatar. When you found him, I was going to set him free and help him end the war." He glared at me for a bit and then laughed at me. I returned his glare and kept glaring at him until his uncle noticed my eyes.

"Zuko, look at her eyes. They have the mark of the spirits. See how they are mismatched?" The prince shrugged off what his uncle said and used the arm not holding my arms behind my back to point at the spot where we had seen the light.

"Uncle, the Avatar must be close by! We have to keep going on to the Southern Water tribe!"

"Prince Zuko, this girl can help us find the Avatar. She is spiritually connected to all of the Avatars." The prince listened to this and turned me around to fully face him. He looked me in the eye and I couldn't help but stare at his scar. Suddenly, I wanted to touch it; to feel it; to see if it matched my own, smaller scar that I received when my mother had been taken. Then, he started shaking me.

"I asked you a question! Answer me! What is your name?"

"I-I, my name is Tomi! I haven't been touched by the spirits," I lied horribly, "my eyes are just weird! I'm not going to help you do anything!" He stopped shaking me and threw me backwards, away from him.

"Take her away until we get to the Southern Water tribe, or I'm going to hurt her." As two guards led me away, I kicked my fallen (stolen) helmet at him, clonking him in the back of the head.

"You couldn't hurt me if the Avatar himself gave you the power!" I said boldly, quite uncharacteristic of me. He turned and gave me an "I'm going to kill you if you don't shut up" look. I was quiet and let the guards take me to the brig without any more trouble on my part.

*** Her name is pronounced Toe Me, by the way. :D ***


	3. Escape! Or Not

The guards put me in a small cell and locked the door. I blew a strand of hair out of my eyes and sat down on the floor.

"Hey, guys, you know how long this is gonna take?" One of the guards looked at me and shrugged.

"It should be a few hours until we arrive at the Southern Water tribe. Why do you ask, prisoner?" I shook my head.

"Eh, no reason. Just wondering when I'm going to escape and help save the world, that's all." The guards shared a look and then laughed at me. I laid back with a sigh and stared at the ceiling until the prince himself came to get me.

"Unlock the door. She's coming with me." He grabbed my arm and forced me to my feet.

"What? Are we there yet?" He didn't answer me, but pushed me roughly out the door instead.

"Don't try anything…girl. If you do, I'm going to hurt you. " I rolled my eyes. He pushed me all the way back to the deck, where we waited until we made landfall. When we did, he pushed me down the plank and shoved me forward, where I fell into the snow. The first thing I saw when I looked up was the scared faces of the people from the small village.

"Where is he? Where is the Avatar?" The people looked each other, obviously confused.

"He's probably not even here…" The prince pulled me to my feet and showed me to the villagers.

"See this girl here? She's been touched by the spirits. And she's going to point out the Avatar for me. Who ever she points out will be coming with me." He pushed me forward a bit, expecting me to point someone out. I crossed my arms and turned away from him.

"I told you I wasn't going to help you…so don't bother." His expression was furious. He looked at the villagers for a moment before he pulled an old lady from the crowd.

"Do it, or these people will be losing an elder!" My eyes widened and I turned back toward him.

"There's no need to take a hostage. I'll…help you. But know that I have no clue what I'm doing." He pushed the old lady back to her granddaughter, who looked at me with relief. I went to each of the villagers in turn and looked them in the eyes, and then I turned back to Zuko.

"He's not here…" The prince's expression turned angry again and he started shaking me.

"Then where is he?"

"Leave her alone!" Zuko and I both looked to see where the voice had come from. It was a boy in the crowd. He ran at the prince with a spear. Zuko pushed me out of the way into the snow and broke the boy's spear and hit him in the head with it. The boy retaliated by throwing a boomerang at him. He dodged it and started advancing on the boy. I watched with a smirk as the boy's boomerang came back and hit Zuko in the back of his head. He gave the boy a murderous look. Then, he aimed his firebending toward the people, who looked on in fear.

"Leave those people alone!" A boy came from a hill, riding on a penguin. It was him. It was the Avatar. I watched in amazement from my cold spot in the snow as the boy took on all the prince's soldiers at once. He surrendered, though, to protect the people. Two guards started to take him away and I hoped that they would forget about me. They didn't. Lucky me.

"Don't forget the girl." I sweatdropped and sighed as the same two guards from before picked me up by my arms and started walking me back to the ship. I took a last look at the village people. One girl, the girl who had looked at me in relief earlier, seemed sadder than the rest that the Avatar had surrendered for them. I sighed and looked forward, trying not to dwell.

Prince Zuko took the boy's airbending staff and told the guards to take the two of us to the cell. While we were walking, the boy tried to converse with the guards. One told him to be quiet. It was silent, and I got the feeling that something was about to happen. Something did. The boy took a deep breath and blew himself and the two guards plus me backwards. He quickly got up and ran. I got up unsteadily after a few seconds and followed him. He was fast; so fast, in fact, that I couldn't nearly keep up with him, and had to stop to catch my breath after a few minutes. I continued to follow him after I caught my breath. I stopped tailing him when I got to the deck. I stepped inconspicuously into the shadows to avoid detection. After a few minutes, I heard a crash from above me, and I looked up and saw the Avatar and the prince both fall out of the window. The boy had tried to take off on his glider when Zuko grabbed his foot and sent them both crashing to the deck below. They fought for a bit, but stopped when a big roar sounded from close by. We saw a giant, flying bison, carrying the girl and the boy from the Southern Water tribe. They were here to help the Avatar. Maybe they would be able to help me too. I tried to step in to help the Avatar but Zuko had already had taken advantage of the boy's momentary distraction and knocked him overboard. My eyes got wide. I ran over to the edge and peered over the side.

"You…you…" I stood up and tackled the prince of the Fire Nation. That was unnecessary, however, because a moment later, the Avatar came back out of the water with glowing eyes and tattoos. He had entered the Avatar State to save himself. The Water tribe boy and girl had landed the giant, flying bison on the deck and were now fighting against some of Zuko's men who had finally decided to fight. One soldier came toward the girl, and she used water to freeze the man, right after she accidently froze her brother. She was a waterbender. She helped the Avatar onto the bison, and her brother followed, right after he broke the ice holding him in place with his boomerang.

"Katara, what about her?"

"Sokka, we have to go! We have to get Aang out of here!" The older boy gave me a quick glance, and then looked back at his sister.

"But she helped us, Katara. What do you think will happen to her if she stays here?"

"Fine! Get her up here and let's go!" The boy, Sokka, looked at me again.

"Hey! Come on!" I stared at his outstretched hand and ran over and grabbed it. Right as he was pulling me onto the bison, Zuko climbed back onto the ship and saw me about to leave. He let out an angry cry and seized my legs, the force breaking my grip with the boy's hand.

"Go! Just go! I'll be fine! Get the Avatar out of here!" The boy gave me a sad look and they took off. I smiled to myself. Even though I was still a prisoner, the Avatar was safe.


	4. Talk

I still wore the remnants of my smile when Prince Zuko got off of me and pulled me roughly to my feet. Then it disappeared. I took one look at his face and debated jumping off the side of the ship and risking freezing to death in the icy waters rather than face his wrath.

"You…YOU JUST COST ME THE AVATAR!" I was afraid of him now, but I wasn't going to back down.

"It doesn't matter if you hurt me. I'm not going to give up my morals. There's nothing you can do to change that…I believe that the Avatar w-"

"SHUT UP! Take her away…before I do something I'll regret…" He pinched the bridge of his nose and the guards took me back to my lonely cell and locked me inside. Then they left me all alone to go back to their jobs. I wished there was a window for me to look out of, but I wasn't in luck, so I just sat there and did nothing for what seemed like a very long time. I never even noticed when I drifted off to sleep. I was having a very good dream about my mother and I playing together as a child. I was just about to tell her that I loved her when I was woken up. I wiped some stray tears away and looked at who had woken me up. It was Zuko's uncle.

"I am sorry for waking you up. I just thought that I should make sure you were okay."

"There's no need for that…I'm fine. Thank you…" The man sat next to me on the floor, ignoring the odd looks I was giving him.

"You were crying in your sleep, Tomi. Would you care to talk about it?"

"Why would you care? I'm just a prisoner." He smiled a sincere smile.

"You don't have to be a sad prisoner." Somehow, I felt that I could trust this man. Somehow, he reminded me a bit of my father.

"I was…having a dream about my mother. She was taken away by the Fire Nation when I was little."

"Oh? Was she a prisoner of war?" I shook my head.

"No, she was from the Fire Nation, herself, and they took her away so she could fight as a Fire Nation soldier. I…haven't seen her since then. I've been living with my father, who was hurt because he tried to stop them from taking my mother. I just want the war to end so she can come home!"

"I see. You are very brave to come out here by yourself. You had a good plan. You just did not expect to be revealed so quickly." I nodded.

"I…I never wanted to make Prince Zuko mad. But I just can't let my morals go down the drain, can I? A-And if I didn't try to help the Avatar, the spirits would take my gift away."

"What kind of gift do you have besides your connection with the Avatar?" I hesitated.

"Promise not to tell Prince Zuko? I…don't want him to know. I don't want him to use me against the Avatar…" He gave me his word that he wouldn't tell the prince and I relented my information.

"I'm a double bender," I whispered. His eyes widened.

"Really, now…that's…incredible. I don't know if I can believe that…which two elements can you bend? Surely not air."

"Earth and fire, sir. But usually I can't do firebending too well unless I'm mad. And I don't know too much of it anyway, since my mother was taken before she could she teach me much." He stroked his beard.

"Hmm…yes, that seems right. I would have been worried for you if you had been able to bend water and fire or air and earth." I gave him an inquisitive look.

"And why's that?" I asked him tentatively.

"Being able to bend to opposite elements would put a strain on your chi. Even bending two elements instead of one like most benders will have put a strain on your chi because you have to divide your chi evenly between the two elements. If it would have been two opposite elements, the strain would have been even greater. But you are still going to tire out more quickly in a fight unless you start training yourself to get used to the strain." I stared at the man for a few seconds.

"Thank you for telling me this. I…think you should go soon, sir. Zuko will get mad and yell at you if he knew you were down here talking to me." He smiled at me a final time before he climbed to his feet.

"Please, call me Iroh. Remember what I told you about your chi, Tomi."

"Uncle, why are you talking to the prisoner?" I jumped. I had been so absorbed in talking to Iroh, that neither he nor I had seen or heard Zuko come up behind us.

"I heard you talking…she's a double bender? What does that mean?" I was silent, since I didn't know whether he was talking to me or his uncle.

"ANSWER ME!" I jumped again.

"Th-That means that I can bend two different elements!" He glared at me, apparently still mad that I had "cost him the Avatar".

"Which two?"

"Earth and f-fire, P-Prince Zuko…" He approached me and I moved back a few steps.

"You are a firebender? Show me." I looked toward Iroh, and then back at the prince.

"I-I can't. There's not enough r-room down here." He gave me an annoyed look.

"Fine. But if you try anything…" he trailed off. He grabbed me by the shoulder and marched me up to the deck, where he promptly turned and shot a fireball at me. I squeaked and ducked.

"If you're a firebender like you say you are, then fight back!" I moved out of the way as he threw another fireball at me.

"Fight back, damn it!" I kept dodging as long as I could, but it was tiring, and I could tell that Iroh had been right about my divided chi. Soon enough, I had to deflect his fire instead of dodging it, and even that was starting to wear me out.

"Why! Won't! You! Fight?" Every word was accented by a fireball. He kept getting closer and closer, and I kept getting more and more tired. He was only a few feet away when I fell to my knees, my arms covering my face. He stopped blasting me with fireballs and pushed me backwards. I burst into tears.

"Stop! Stop it! Just stop it!" He raised an eyebrow and grabbed me by the chin. He spoke to me more softly than before, but still like he was annoyed.

"What's wrong with you? Why won't you fight me? Why are you so weak?" That one, single word repeated over and over inside my head.

"_Heh, look, the little mutt is trying to save her mama. Cute. Too bad you're so weak, girl…say goodbye to your mother."_

My heart felt like it shattered. I clenched my fists and squeezed my eyes shut. Before I knew what I was doing, I had erupted into flames, knocking the prince backwards. I got up and stood over him, eyes blazing in saddened anger.

"Do not…call me weak…ever…I am not weak…" After a few seconds, I realized what I had done, and my eyes widened.

"Oh…I'm sorry. I…" I extended my hand to help him to his feet, but he just stared at me incredulously.

"What the hell was that? Why the hell didn't you use that to defend yourself with?" I turned away from him. I didn't notice when he stood up and turned me around to face him.

"Don't turn away from me when I'm talking to you!" Iroh walked by and smirked.

"Zuko, you are arguing with her like you are an old married couple!" It felt like my face had caught on fire. But he was blushing too. I took his distraction as an opportunity, and shoved his hand away. I turned and ran. I had no clue where I was going, but I really didn't feel like getting pushed around by the prince anymore.

"H-Hey! Get back here! That's an order!" I ignored him and kept running.


End file.
